Tag: childhood obesity

By Sarah Ovaska On a rainy, cold and dark winter evening, several dozen children from age 5 into their teenage years gathered in the courtyard of a Durham Parks and Recreation building, counting out stretches, jumping jacks, lunges and leaps in unison. “1-2-3-4-5 …” Between the numbers were shouts relaying the rules of Bull City

By Taylor Knopf When Selma White stocks her neighborhood convenience store with fruit, she can hardly keep bananas on the shelves. Stella’s, named after her mother, is a small, gray house on a mostly residential street just north of downtown Elizabeth City. White opened Stella’s in 2001 and stocked with it the usual corner store

By Taylor Knopf It doesn’t take long to find a woman in the northeastern coastal town of Elizabeth City who had a baby delivered by Dr. Lindsay Stevenson, one of only two OB-GYNs in the area. Samantha Merritt was a little nervous to deliver her first child in the small, rural town of about 18,000

By Taylor Knopf After a healthy cooking class in Lee County, some of the participants said they loved the new nutritious recipes, but that they didn’t have some of the cooking utensils at home to make them. So one local group came up with the idea to put kitchen utensil lending libraries in food banks

By Joe Fassler The New Food Economy Everybody’s heard the unsettling bit about the razor blade-spiked Halloween apple. But for three decades, Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, has been a calm, consistent voice of reason: No, the neighborhood psycho isn’t going to tamper with the local trick-or-treaters’ candy. In a paper

Child care centers around the state are trying to stem the growing tide of obesity. By Thomas Goldsmith Alissa Merritt loves it when her 5 year old daughter Gracie toddles up to her with a piece of fruit or a vegetable to ask, “This is a healthy snack, right?” Merritt attributes Gracie’s knowledge of healthy

Three years after the legislature started hearing about food deserts, legislators are poised to address North Carolina’s obesity problem. By Rose Hoban Walk into Carolina Country Fresh on the edge of the Pitt County town of Bethel this week and you’ll be surrounded by fresh lettuce, onions and peas. And strawberries – for another week

Each year, our editor treks out to the North Carolina State Fair, determined to find healthy food that’s also special enough to be good for the fair. By Rose Hoban People always laugh when I tell them, “I’m going to the state fair to find healthy food,” but I refuse to be discouraged in my

A program to help middle-schoolers find their own way toward healthy food choices is finding success. This story was originally published in February 2012, but has been updated with new information. By Taylor Sisk When you’re a seventh-grader, the world is your oyster. Or maybe it’s your carrot stick. But more probably, it’s your Twix.